1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally pertains to semiconductor packages, and more particularly to a ceramic substrate containing semiconductor units and a method for breaking the same.
2. Prior Art
The major trend in the semiconductor industry today is to make products lighter, smaller, faster, multifunctional, and cheaper. Correspondingly, all kinds of semiconductor manufacturing technologies are being rapidly developed in order to meet increasingly demanding user requirements. In mass production of semiconductor products, it is common for multiple semiconductor units to be manufactured on a common base substrate. The separate semiconductor units are arranged in an array on the substrate, and subsequently the substrate is broken into pieces to provide the individual semiconductor units. A process of breaking the substrate is a key technology in order to achieve high quality and maintain production efficiency. A yield rate of the breaking process is a key factor in considering the quality and efficiency of the breaking process.
Conventional ceramic substrates, especially ceramic substrates covered with protective compound, are divided by incising. A top elevation view of a conventional ceramic substrate 130 is shown in FIG. 12. The ceramic substrate 130 is embedded with a plurality of circuit units 132. The layout of a bottom surface of the ceramic substrate 130 is the same as that of a top surface of the ceramic substrate 130. A plurality of identification marks 134 are arranged around edges of the top surface and the bottom surface of the ceramic substrate 130. Most of the identification marks 134 correspond to clearances between adjacent circuit units 132. FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view taken along line E-E of FIG. 12. Further referring to FIG. 14, the top surface of the ceramic substrate 130 is covered with protective compound 136, for sealing the ceramic substrate 130 and preventing the circuit units 132 from being degraded by exposure to air. Because the identification marks 134 on the top surface of the ceramic substrate 130 are covered by the protective compound 136, the circuit units 132 can be divided into individual units only by reference to the identification marks 134 exposed on the bottom surface of the ceramic substrate 130. FIG. 15 shows a cutter 138 cutting the ceramic substrate 130. The cutter 138 sequentially cuts the ceramic substrate 130 and the protective compound 136 according to the identification marks 134 on the bottom surface.
The above-described method generally causes the ceramic substrate 130 to be split as desired. However, the cutter 138 may be seriously damaged by abrasion during the cutting process, due to the hardness of the ceramic substrate 130. Correspondingly, the production costs are increased. Besides, the ceramic substrate 130 is easily to be cracked during the cutting process because of its brittleness.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to overcome the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.